Buy a Doane Spencer Thunderbird and an equally timeless watch

Both all-American. Both timeless.

As a rule, modified examples of the Ford Thunderbird are about as interesting as the fuzzy dice inevitibaly hanging from the rear-view mirror. Of course, most custom Thunderbirds aren't built by Doane Spencer, either. Don't know the name? The man's a pillar of early hot rodding and was as consumed with making a machine handle as he was with squeezing horsepower from V8s of every ilk. Hemmings has a great write up on both Spencer and his Thunderbirds. Read it here.

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This particular car is the second '55 he built, and it uses many of the go-fast goodies plucked from the first car. There's a bored and stroked 322 Y-block V8 under the hood fed by two Holley 450-cfm carbs, and the engine reportedly makes enough torque to require a Heim-joint stabilizer bar to keep the mill from twisting in the engine bay. That alone is argument enough for taking this car home. Then there's the extensive suspension tweaks Spencer made to allow the car to compete in vintage races. Look for the machine to go under the gavel at the Auctions America event in Auburn, Indiana. There is no reserve.

Of course, you'll need an appropriate timepiece for a machine like this. I'm thinking something with similarly classic, American styling. Behold the Weiss Field Watch. At $795, it isn't something you'll want to wear while spinning wrenches, but it'll look just about perfect dangling out the driver's side window of Spencer's '55. At the time of this writing, it's on backorder, but check back at Weiss for updates. It's well worth waiting for.